Behaviorism and Mental Health

Alternative perspective on psychiatry's so-called mental disorders | PHILIP HICKEY, PH.D.

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Depression Is Not An Illness: A New Website

November 14, 2013 By Phil Hickey |

I’ve recently come across a new website that is challenging the illness approach to depression.

It’s depressionwars.com and is written by Char Leander, an industrial sociologist.  Char became interested in this topic when she saw “…the epidemic of emotional disorders in the workplace.”  She also recounts some personal experience with depression.

Here are some quotes from her November 11 post Fight Back Against Depression:

“You have to fight back against depression as disorder! The walls of depression may be high, but higher still are the invincible mental walls erected around the concepts of disorder, mental illness, and disease.”

“When you participate in societal cognition and reject the message of yourself as a defective cell, you change not only the way you are feeling, but influence the energy of the cells surrounding you.”

“It is unlikely for you to pass into a new phase of development without depression, as that is what transpires when you face the changes taking place within you.”

Depressionwars.com is thoughtful, articulate, relevant, and well-written.  Please take a look.

Filed Under: A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders Tagged With: depression

About Phil Hickey

I am a licensed psychologist, presently retired. I have worked in clinical and managerial positions in the mental health, corrections, and addictions fields in the United States and England. My wife Nancy and I have been married since 1970 and have four grown children.

 

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The phrase "mental health" as used in the name of this website is simply a term of convenience. It specifically does not imply that the human problems embraced by this term are illnesses, or that their absence constitutes health. Indeed, the fundamental tenet of this site is that there are no mental illnesses, and that conceptualizing human problems in this way is spurious, destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this website is to provide a forum where current practices and ideas in the mental health field can be critically examined and discussed. It is not possible in this kind of context to provide psychological help or advice to individuals who may read this site, and nothing written here should be construed in this manner. Readers seeking psychological help should consult a qualified practitioner in their own local area. They should explain their concerns to this person and develop a trusting working relationship. It is only in a one-to-one relationship of this kind that specific advice should be given or taken.

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